Looking to the Sky

In the past, I have been guilty of being a little depressed by the Ascension. Looking at it from a certain angle, it has the feel of a party that’s coming to an end. The important guests have gone home and now it’s time to turn the lights back on, switch off the music and start cleaning up.

Of course, if I view the Ascension in this light, I’m not really paying attention. I’m lingering on the mountain, staring at the sky, wondering where God went and when He’s coming back.

Christ, of course, is very much the “main event” of the Gospels, and so when he is no longer a physical, visible presence on earth — teaching, preaching, curing, dying, rising — we can be forgiven for feeling a little deflated. But the life of Christ is not a season of our favorite show. It’s not a chapter in a book. It doesn’t exist for consumption and entertainment, and it certainly doesn’t come to an end.

It’s easy to think of Christ at Mass when he is there before me in the Eucharist. It’s easy to be about the work of God during Lent or Easter. But what about the dreaded “Ordinary Time”? As full as the sky is of clouds, so the world is full of distractions: work, finances, health, politics. I struggle to see where God has gone in the midst of it all.

In reality, He is still here. He is here in the person I choose to love or to abandon. He is here in the truth I choose to embrace or to reject. He is here, waiting for me in the sacraments I all too often take for granted.

“Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:20

©LPi